This past Sunday's Honda Day at Atco Raceway was a perfect way to open up the season here in the Northeast. We were especially excited to test out some new parts we are using this season. We'd like to thank the entire staff at Atco Raceway for hosting such a great event and a huge shoutout to OGS for another killer event. Hopefully we can expect to see the same huge turnout at the next Honda Day event in August.
This was Chris' first time out with the car since last season. It was also his first time testing with the AEM and the Spec carbon carbon clutch. We were all anxious to see how the first pass in qualifying rounds would have us faring.
First pass Chris came out with a 8.89 @ 173, a great way to both start the season and allow us to take a sigh of relief! Everything seemed to be running great on the car and we were the number 1 qualifier going into the 2nd qualifier.
We missed 2nd round of qualifying because we never heard the announcement. Not too big of a deal but Jonathan Reynolds was able to just best our first round time, knocking us into 2nd qualifier going into round 1 eliminations.
First round is up, and we have a bye. Second round comes and we are up against Gary Eng. Unfortunately, Gary didn't make the call, so we essentially had another bye and were able to cruise down the track. That brought us into the finals against Jonathan Reynolds.
The car left the line with the BEST 60' it has ever had @ 1.481. However, as soon as Chris hit second gear it was over. We can't say for sure exactly what happened at this point. In the upcoming weeks we will be diagnosing the exact cause of what went wrong. As soon as Chris felt the car go, he put the brakes on in order to not oil down the track and delay the rest of the event.
No one likes to see a motor go, especially during the final run of an event. That being said, we couldn't have asked for more out of this motor. This engine has been together for what would have been its 3rd season. It has gone through 2 previous seasons of record breaking runs and LOTS of wear, with few to no problems. It was really a dream motor. In the next few days we will be tearing it down and figuring out what finally took it down.
Chris is wasting no time in preparing the repairs to the car in order to attend Spring Nationals at Englishtown May 1st and 2nd. He has already started ordering the necessary parts needed to get the new engine together and ready. There is a lot of work to be down from now to Spring Nationals in two weeks. We also plan on installing the new DriveShaft Shop Pro Axles in the car this week, as we did not have the time to get them in before this event. There will be many late nights at the shop for sure, but we will be there and have some more power with us as well!
Chris wasn't the only Team NRG Tech member racing yesterday. Jose "Pepsi" Bello had a great day in the All Motor class. His first pass of the year was a 10.50 @ 127. Pepsi hit the first round with a 10.47 @ 131. In the second round, after having dialed the car in a bit, Pepsi had his BEST 60' and 330 to date. Sadly, a missed shift ruined the run and he aborted shortly after. We expect to better the All-Motor record in a few weeks at Englishtown.
All in all it was a great day at the track. Racing is a constant battle. There will always be broken parts, lost races, missed shifts. We are continuing to test and learn and get better every time out!
Continue to check back for more updates on the status of the motor and our continuing journey into the 2010 season.
